Message from the Chancellor
Andrew D. Martin
“And in September, we announced a bold approach to financial aid in which no student will ever need to take a loan to receive an undergraduate education at Washington University, enabling all students to pursue lives of meaning and impact in young adulthood.”
Read the Message
An institution’s endowment spending policy is a key instrument of financial discipline that allows it to balance the conflicting goals of providing stable support for current operations and preserving purchasing power for future generations.
The annual distribution from the endowment is the university’s fourth largest revenue stream, accounting for between 10 and 12 percent of the university’s operating budget in a typical year. The largest sources of revenue come from patient care and research grants at the School of Medicine, followed by tuition from all schools of the university, and then payout from the endowment.
Much of the annual payout is earmarked for specific and strategic purposes, such as faculty and staff salaries, programs and initiatives, financial aid, operating costs, capital projects, research, and more.
$570M
Endowment Payout in FY23
⠀
⠀
4,334
Total
Number of Endowed
Funds
63%
Endowed Funds with Donor Restrictions
⠀
FY23 Endowment Distribution by Use
Total Endowment Payout ($ Millions)
